Introduction

Bodyguard is a British police-thriller television series created and written by Jed Mercurio and produced by World Productions as part of ITV Studios for the BBC.

The six-part series features Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes, and includes Gina McKee, Sophie Rundle, Vincent Franklin, Pippa Haywood, Paul Ready, Tom Brooke, Nicholas Gleaves, Stuart Bowman, Stephanie Hyam, David Westhead, Matt Stokoe, Nina Toussaint-White, Ash Tandon, and Anjli Mohindra.

Outline

Stephen Hunter-Dunn, Director General of MI5, informs Montague of intelligence suggesting a terrorist plan to attack Budd’s children’s school in retaliation for his foiling of the train bombing. He advises her to keep it secret, fearing a member of the police might have leaked Budd’s information to the terrorists. Montague later controversially transfers investigation of the foiled bombing to MI5.

A bombing attack on the school is prevented by a police ARV shooting the terrorists, but the terrorists detonate the bomb in the street by timer prior to being shot. Both terrorists and three police officers are killed. Budd’s family is relocated to a safe house, and although he is removed from Montague’s detail, she has him reinstated. She also arranges the offer of a place at a special school for Budd’s son.

Returning from a COBRA meeting, Montague’s car comes under sniper fire that kills her driver, but she and Budd survive due to the car’s armour plating. Budd pursues and corners the sniper, who is revealed to be Apsted, on the roof of a building, where he shoots himself dead. Budd hides his relationship with Apsted.

That evening, Budd and Montague have sex. The next day he is instructed by Anne Sampson, Head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, and his superior, CSU Lorraine Craddock, to record Montague’s meetings. They also tell him she had prior knowledge that his children’s school would be targeted.

Bodyguard Series

You can find a full index of the Bodyguard series here.

Production & Filming Details

• Creator(s): Jed Mercurio.
• Director(s): Thomas Vincent and John Strickland.
• Producer(s): Simon Heath, Jed Mercurio, Elizabeth Kilgarriff, Priscilla Parish, and Eric Coulter.
• Writer(s): Jed Mercurio.
• Music: Ruth Barrett and Ruskin Williamson.
• Cinematography: John Lee.
• Editor(s): Steve Singleton and Andrew John McClelland.
• Production: World Productions.
• Distributor(s): ITV Studios Global Entertainment.
• Original Network: BBC One.
• Release Date: 27 August 2018.
• Running Time: 60 minutes.
• Country: UK.
• Language: English.